Mommy, am I cult?http://booklikes.com/photo/crop/50/50/upload/avatar/44/68/06c01ef185651b2423e59167c93e33db.jpgamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com2018-08-14T22:26:05+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/rssreview: Short chronicles for eroded Internet brains? - Choose Yourself Stories, by James Altucher2016-09-26T06:24:00+01:002016-09-26T06:24:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1473477/short-chronicles-for-eroded-internet-brains-choose-yourself-stories-by-james-altucheramandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com
It had been months since I read my last book. Maybe internet is killing my attention span. (Quite grave for someone like me, who used to read 100 books a year.)

But I could finish this book in two sit-downs. I finally got back on the bike. This little self help book seemed almost clinically sewn to cure my literary drought. Its chapters are short, the titles are click-bait (and often misleading), and there is so, so much clusterfuckery going on, I couldn't help but read more and more.

Because it is interesting to read about the life of someone who got rich and then lost everything. The author also dealt with depression, and by the looks of it, some mild social anxiety. He just doesn't feel ashamed about the numerous faults he did in his life, and even if some of the stories sound ludicrous, the author depreciates himself so much, it all just reeks honesty.

Sometimes the style is ranty and all over the place, and some chapters end with an articulation of abstract nouns that reads like an Instagram inspirational post. I skimmed those parts. Despite that, I enjoyed the foot-on-the-ground advice (eat well, sleep well, surround yourself with positive people, and write down your ideas daily.)

For someone who couldn't read a book in months, I'm glad I'm back on the marathon.

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review: When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends2016-08-22T00:00:00+01:002016-08-22T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474441/when-paris-sizzled-the-1920s-paris-of-hemingway-chanel-cocteau-cole-porter-josephine-baker-and-their-friendsamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comThis was meant to tell all about the crazy years in Paris. I always had a fascination for that period at that specific place, so I thought I could do no wrong by requesting this at Netgalley.

This was amazing until the second third, because of the way the book was structured. The author divided the book into time periods, and told what the prominent personalities of said time were doing. It was okay in the beginning when everyone was still being introduced, because the author had to stop to actually tell their stories, so we had a sense of progress. But in the second third, the book reads like this:

"So Coco Chanel did this, and Kiki did that, and Proust was going insane and Citroen was being an ass- as usual."

Nah, I won't keep reading this. But I'm greatful for the first part.
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review: When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends2016-08-22T00:00:00+01:002016-08-22T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474442/when-paris-sizzled-the-1920s-paris-of-hemingway-chanel-cocteau-cole-porter-josephine-baker-and-their-friendsamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comThis was meant to tell all about the crazy years in Paris. I always had a fascination for that period at that specific place, so I thought I could do no wrong by requesting this at Netgalley.

This was amazing until the second third, because of the way the book was structured. The author divided the book into time periods, and told what the prominent personalities of said time were doing. It was okay in the beginning when everyone was still being introduced, because the author had to stop to actually tell their stories, so we had a sense of progress. But in the second third, the book reads like this:

"So Coco Chanel did this, and Kiki did that, and Proust was going insane and Citroen was being an ass- as usual."

It was only in the last third of the book that I actually got attached to some characters, and it prepared me to have the right emotions at the heartbreaking end. I gave the book an extra star for that.

I got disappointed at the Epilogue, it was beautiful, but a little contrived and there was a certain development that needed more explanation. For a work of such emotional complexity, it fell behind. Overall, I thought this book was very well executed, but a little too perfect, too artificial, like it was a huge exercise on writing well. It didn't feel honest.
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review: Now let's consider this case2016-05-29T00:00:00+01:002016-05-29T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474331/now-let-s-consider-this-caseamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com"praise Jesus for the gift of life, for the gift of a husband in these days of good-man scarcity, for Jesus had seen their chaste hearts and rewarded them for staying virgins till their wedding nights, very true indeed they confirm, although there was no way for each woman to ascertain if the other’s claims to virginity were true or not, a research mission they imagined themselves embarking upon"

This is a perfect mirror of the WASP housewife psyche. At first very critical and judgmental. But I can't resist it. This is my kind of reading.
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review: Girl2016-05-29T00:00:00+01:002016-05-29T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1468748/girlamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comIt is one paragraph long. How much genius can fit in only one paragraph? Oh, God, now I have to know this Jamaica Kincaid person. Who is she? What else has she wrote?

This is really short, so you lose only 5 minutes checking it out at:http://themapisnot.com/issue-i-ramona-ausubel
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review: Likeable2016-05-29T00:00:00+01:002016-05-29T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474288/likeableamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comRead it here. It's just 3 paragraphs.http://muumuuhouse.com/dou.fiction2.html
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review: The Swan as Metaphor for Love (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading)2016-05-29T00:00:00+01:002016-05-29T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474289/the-swan-as-metaphor-for-love-electric-literature-s-recommended-readingamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com
http://joylandmagazine.com/regions/los-angeles/swan-metaphor-love

I had to read twice to get all the metaphors. I expected something HILARIOUS, as Flavorwire claimed, but it is just ha-ha clever.
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review: The Beach Boy2016-05-29T00:00:00+01:002016-05-29T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474299/the-beach-boyamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comSo Marcia judges. Ah, to judge and to repress. That felt like the main theme of story. That and how the pressure to be adequate can prevent us from living.

A little bit long, but if you like contemplative works, it is worth it.
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review: Cheever Reads: The Swimmer2016-05-29T00:00:00+01:002016-05-29T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1474302/cheever-reads-the-swimmeramandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comreview: Cinder2016-05-04T00:00:00+01:002016-05-04T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1468784/cinderamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comAs a retelling of Cinderella as a cyborg in a futuristic society, there were two elements that made Cinder interesting.

1. The WorldThe place is a conglomerate of Asian countries, and being the new center of the world, it is New Beijing that attracts all the immigrants. You see characters from all over the world, from various ethnicities. I myself thought that Cinder was Asian until I heard she came from Europe.

Cinder, the heroCinder is a strong character. As a cyborg, she is seen as a propriety, as a subhuman. She is explored by her stepmother and humiliated by one of her sisters, but she never, never becomes whiny.

The book ends in a cliffhanger, and I decided to keep reading the series. Cinder alone is enough to keep me going, not to mention her friendship with the adorable android Iko and whatever the future holds for the prince Kai.
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review: Middle-Aged Boys & Girls2016-04-03T00:00:00+01:002016-04-03T00:00:00+01:00http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.com/post/1468749/middle-aged-boys-girlsamandaalexandre5http://amandaalexandre5.booklikes.comTo put it simply, the writing is delicious. It has spirit and critique. Sometimes it gets judgy, and sometimes it gets heartbreakingly empathetic. From the first paragraph, I knew I found a hidden jewel: after I read this, I found myself closer to my human peers, more privy to their inner insecurities (and how those relate to mine) than judgmental of their shortcomings. This is what "high literature" should be all about.

...the reason he was interviewing her, and not he other way around, the requisite Master's degree in social work prominently displayed on the wall. Never once spending a day at the poverty line, but rich in the political acumen that people like her lacked to market themselves to the powers that bestowed big money.

His head was lowered. Preoccupied, I wondered? Or with the affectionate, mockexasperation of the duty-bound father?

The kind of guy [who was] was small town loser-boy who couldn't make it in the big city, stubbornly clinging to hard rock bands that no one listened to anymore, his hard luck stories and his victim's sense of entitlement.